bag had finally broken me and I was ready to snap.
I ran down the hall, feeling the muscles in my body tighten and clench. The simple act of exercising worked wonders for taming my wolf. I did it often to ward off an attempted shift when I was around my human friends in my apartment building. One patch of fur here at Delphi with a bunch of magical kids wasn’t so much a big deal as it was with the human population.
I burst free of the double doors and into the school parking lot. And that’s when my wolf surged to the surface.
Tipping my head back, she let loose with a full-on howl that ended as a human scream full of rage and agony. Pain that Packard couldn’t be dealt with properly. Anger that I was stuck in this fuck-all of a school with a bunch of assholes who hated me, while my parents worked three human jobs to keep us fed. The cuffs shot out a powerful burst of magic and I gasped in pain, cutting my howl off from my throat as it turned into a strangled cry of pain. I collapsed to the ground, holding my arms as my claws retracted and the fur retreated. Nothing like getting tasered every time you tried to be yourself.
That’s when a throat cleared behind me.
Oh. Fuck.
My whole body stiffened as I stood on the tips of my Converse shoes, preparing myself to come face to face with a teacher.
Being a wolf, I was categorized as a “predator student.” The only other species that got that designation here were the vampires, and the dark fey. The vampires were kept so well fed no one really bothered policing them, and everyone was terrified of the dark fey so they didn’t police them either. But me … if I partially shifted, growled, eyes went yellow, anything to show I was “threatening” a fellow student, it was all recorded and counted against me.
One more strike and I was out of here.
I inhaled as I spun around, and the first thing I smelled hit me right in the gut, sending warmth down my chest, trickling through my stomach and settling right between my legs.
Wolf.
Male.
Dominant.
Unmated.
One smell, that’s all it took for me to know these four things.
“Having a bad day?” His voice was deep, husky, undeniably sexy.
My eyes went from the dark-wash jeans that clung to his muscular thighs up to the powder blue t-shirt he wore that was so tight it was like a second skin. It strained against his muscles, showing every dip and curve, even his nipples, which were pointed tight. When I got to his face, my heart jackknifed in my chest. Eyes the color of honey looked back at me from behind thick black lashes. They were threaded through with a deep blue the color of the ocean. He had a chiseled jaw and a chin butt. Honest to God, I’d always wanted to meet a guy in real life who had a chin butt. It was a weird fetish of mine.
Bucket list achieved.
“You could say that.” I ran my fingers through my blond hair, taming any flyaways and trying to get my shit together.
Other than my mom and dad, I’d never met another wolf.
“You don’t have much control over your wolf.” His comment probably wasn’t meant to be cruel. By the tone of it, he was just making an observation, but it stung nonetheless.
I shrugged. “Why should I want to control her?”
His eyes went from warm honey to hot lava and I swallowed hard.
“New student?” I asked.
Please say yes.
Having another wolf at school would be amazing, especially this wolf.
Wolf Boy and Wolf Girl ride off into the sunset together and live happily ever after in banishment.
He shook his head slowly. “Just visiting.”
Fuck.
I peered out at the parking lot to see two huge dudes standing on either side of a black SUV that was pulled up to the curb. They had their hands out, stilled at their sides like they were going to pull a weapon on me for talking to this guy. He must work for the alpha and be here on business or something.
“From Werewolf City?” I pried.
I was slightly desperate to know everything about the place my parents were banished from.
His eyes slowly transformed from orange to yellow, and then to that striking bright blue as his wolf fully retreated. The blue of his eyes held a sorrow I couldn’t place, a brokenness I felt in myself and